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METRO VANCOUVER — Coquitlam is just weeks away from a total ban on skateboards, longboards, in-line skates and even kids' scooters - on all city streets and sidewalks.

The move would mean the popular, relatively inexpensive devices could not be ridden for transportation or sport by anyone of any age, including children riding on city sidewalks accompanied by parents.

Bicycles are already banned from Coquitlam sidewalks.

As part of a package of traffic bylaw updates presented during a marathon Monday session that ran past 11 p.m., council gave third reading without comment to a bylaw that would restrict scooters and boarders to pathways designated as "multi-use."

Those pathways, many of them in parks, would be shared by pedestrians and all non-motorized devices, including bicycles. Signs would mark them as shared paths but pedestrians would have the right of way, according to background material attached to the proposal.

The item emerged despite little public discussion and little to no concerns raised to council. As with many bylaws, the regulation would likely be enforced by complaint only.

Jozsef Dioszeghy, the city's manager of engineering, said the bylaw is aimed at "improving the safety of the travelling public" and "reducing or eliminating conflicts on the sidewalks."

He also noted that bylaws provide "flexible tools for enforcement" where there are problems and that the intent "is clearly not to prevent a six-year-old child from using the device while their parent is watching."

But he conceded that it would in fact formally ban the practice.

A random poll of councillors turned up a variety of rationales for Monday's vote.

Coun. Brent Amundson said the bylaw was needed to cover the city's potential liabilities.

Coun. Bonita Zarrillo, who recalled three recent close calls of her own with skateboarders while driving, said the "wider issue" was public safety in a city with very hilly geography and boarders who can move at high speeds.

Mayor Richard Stewart said a city with "an aging population" needs to balance the needs of pedestrians with other users, especially on sidewalks "designed for foot traffic." Anyone moving faster than a pedestrian but without the same ability to stop "represents a real challenge," he said.

But there may be a middle ground between open streets and a full ban, Coun. Neal Nicholson suggested. He noted that drivers have gradually begun to accommodate cyclists, and that any eventual bylaw would be used largely as a tool for resolving complaints.

Port Coquitlam has no restriction on nonmotorized scooters, skateboards or longboards on streets or sidewalks, but skateboard use in city parks is restricted to designated areas. Port Moody has no bans either, but requires helmets in its skateboard parks.

The prospect of a ban came as an unpopular surprise to boarders and cyclists at Coquitlam's Town Centre skate bowl this week.

Tristan, a Coquitlam nine-year-old who's been riding a scooter for five years, was busy perfecting his skilled moves with a friend under the watchful eye of dad Trevor.

He was driven to the park by his dad, but said he often rides on the sidewalk while his mother cycles on the road.

"I guess I can't do that any more," he said.

Tristan, who also has a longboard, says he used to ride his scooter to Panorama Heights elementary until the school banned them over safety concerns during recess and lunchtime use. Trevor, who said his older son also rides a longboard, predicted an attempt at a ban "would go sideways. I don't think it'll happen.

"You don't fix (problems) by banning it.

You give them someplace to go instead. It just comes down to money," he said.

Jackson Hilts, manager of Flatspot Boards in Vancouver, says a ban in West Vancouver has worked poorly. On several popular hills and roads there that draw boarders from across Metro, someone calls police regularly to complain, he says.

"When longboarders get hurt, they call for a ban. When a cyclist gets hurt, they call for more and safer bike lanes."

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